In early 2011 W3C launched HTML5. It is the first major revision of the HTML specification since 1997, a specification created before the world saw Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Wikipedia, or even Google.

Perhaps it is a given that HTML5 is sorely needed. It promises to solve practical and immediate problems with web standards (video, animation, mobile, semantics, and much more) that despite demand have gone unresolved. Many of these problems, however, were already known to previous efforts to standardize the web, yet apparently failed where HTML5 has succeeded. Why? And what makes us think HTML5 won’t suffer the same fate? This talk will given an overview of HTML5 and why it’s critical to the modern web.

Chris Joslyn has waded neck-deep in web standards since the unexpected start of his internet-dependant career in 2004. He currently squeezes magic out of JavaScript as an Interactive Developer for Kenzan Media, developing interactive things and working to bring iTV via web or what-have-you to the masses.